Presenter: Lluís Solé

Lluís Solé, PhD is a musician and researcher. Actually, he is a professor of Music Pedagogy at Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya in Spain. His early education was as a biologist and then as an instrumental player of piano, recorder, harpsichord, cornett and bansuri. He has worked as a music soloist and as teacher in secondary education.

Significantly, for our Saturday night keynote he is also the founder and conductor of the UVic’s Inclusive Orchestra, an access and equity project on music practice based in the application of Universal Design Principles to orchestras. His interests are focused on accessibility in instrumental music making and participation in music regardless of an individual’s musical abilities. He is interested also in the Arts-Based processes (Inquiry, Evaluation, Assessment or dissemination) through music.

The Inclusive Orchestra of the University of Vic (Barcelona, Catalonia-Spain) is a unique project concerned with creating and developing an orchestra that has no limitations in terms of participation.

The orchestra was conceived and developed as an activity for everyone, open to the participation of all those who want to be part of it and, therefore, is accessible for people: of different ages; levels of knowledge; and musical or performing abilities. There are no restrictions for participation of any kind regarding the characteristics and circumstances of the participants.

Although it was initially opened for the university community, the orchestra has grown and now welcomes external participants. Nowadays, they outnumber the group of students, professors, and administrative personnel of the institution.

Its origin and characteristics are varied. We have children, retirees, young people, of all ages. The participants generally fall into 5 categories, with regard to their relationship with music, and depending on individual circumstances, each academic year may vary significantly, the distribution is currently as follows:

• Professional or semi-professional musicians with a high interpretive level: 10%
• low-level musicians in musical training: 10%
• Amateur musicians of different levels who have studied music at some point but currently only play for pleasure: 50%
• Self-taught musicians without academic training: 20%
• Musicians without any prior musical knowledge: 10%

Applying the seven principles of Universal Design (Equity, Simplicity, Flexibility, Perceptibility, Tolerance to Error, Minimum Effort, Spaces for Use), as well as other accessibility strategies, allows us to tackle an eclectic repertoire. The benefits for participants are unquestionable: We have verified through research that participation in the orchestra contributes to well-being, to self-esteem and self-confidence, not only for unexperienced musicians but also for professional musicians.

The orchestra was created in 2014 and since then has been working uninterruptedly offering a minimum of 2 performances each academic year.

This presentation will take place on Zoom. After booking you will receive an email with the link and passcode a few days before the event.